There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

In the end, I gave up trying to figure out things like Manager Myeon’s true identity, the reason I ended up in Extraction Team 1, or why the Strategic Planning Office was interested in me.

The reason was simple.

‘It’s not like I can do anything about it.’

I had already been warned for trying to investigate behind their backs and told to stop snooping around. Digging any deeper into the matter wouldn’t do me any good.

I let out a sigh and was preparing to start the afternoon’s work when Assistant Manager Son spotted me and beckoned me over with the fingers on his head.

“Ah, Haeil. Come here for a moment.”

“Yes, Assistant Manager.”

I composed my expression, put on a cheerful smile, and walked over. Assistant Manager Son poured the coffee he was holding directly onto the palm of his head and began chewing noisily.

I’ll ignore the fact that every time those fingers twitched, a little coffee trickled between them.

“Well, it’s just… we have C-31.”

“C-31…? You mean the Unstable Fugitive?”

“Yeah. That guy escaped again. This is your first time seeing him escape, right?”

I nodded as I searched through my memories.

Ever since I had been assigned to Zone C, I had thoroughly memorized the manuals for the Class C Dimensional Entities, and I had memorized the ones that struck me as particularly strange or concerning perfectly, to the point that I wouldn’t get a single word wrong.

The Unstable Fugitive was one of them.

==========

[Dimensional Entity Management Profile: C-31]

Dimensional Entity Name: Unstable Fugitive

Dimensional Entity Code: C-31

Type: Biological

Risk Level: Class C

[Details]

Incomplete Materialization

A biological-type entity covered in scraps of old cloth resembling an orange prison uniform. Its entire body crackles as though covered in static interference, and it possesses the ability to pass through physical walls and containment devices. It displays an extreme rejection response to the mere fact of being confined, and from the moment the isolation room door is closed, it begins searching for gaps between the molecules in the walls in an attempt to escape.

Combat Handcuffs

The broken handcuffs fastened around its wrists can extend their chains indefinitely. During an escape, it uses these chains like whips to destroy corridor walls or ensnare employees and drag them through walls.

[Extraction Mechanism]

The rift energy generated when the entity distorts space in order to escape is collected. Paradoxically, the greatest amount of energy is produced when the entity desperately attempts to flee, so the security of the isolation room must be deliberately kept deficient in order to induce its escape.

[Management and Extraction Manual]

Keep in mind that physical contact with the entity is impossible while it is in an intangible state.

Its intangibility weakens when it feels another person’s gaze, so the entity must be kept within the field of vision at all times.

The chains of the handcuffs can pass through walls and suddenly shoot outward, so vibrations in the corridor floor must be monitored carefully.

==========

‘Haha, fuck.’

Escaping was a fundamental part of the procedure?

I think we’re fucked.

“Don’t worry! We usually find him before it’s time to leave, so you don’t have to worry about working overtime.”

Even though Assistant Manager Son had completely missed the point with his attempt to reassure me, I forced the corners of my lips upward and answered cheerfully.

“Yes, I’ll do my best to look for him too.”

“No, you don’t have to try that hard either. He hides somewhere, and when he starts getting bored, he comes out and attacks us on his own.”

Hmm, I see.

Correction.

I think we’re completely fucked.

***

I have pretty good intuition.

Put that way, it sounds too abstract, so I’ll explain it more simply.

If I play rock-paper-scissors, I win nine times out of ten.

Whenever I get a bad feeling and put my guard up, something always ends up happening.

When I randomly guess an answer on a multiple-choice exam, I have a fairly high chance of getting it right.

Little things like that which, although insignificant, turn out to be surprisingly useful in everyday life.

Until now, the only time my intuition had ever been wrong was when I thought it would be a good idea to take a job at Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts.

[Good afternoon! What would you like to ask me today?]

During the morning, I had been cutting the Little Lamb’s nerve bundles, disinfecting the protective suit, and receiving instructions from Assistant Manager Son about other Class C Dimensional Entities, so I hadn’t had time to deal with Omniscient Incompetent.

For a moment, I considered asking him about Manager Myeon, but no matter how much I thought about it, I had a bad feeling about doing that.

So I decided to change the question slightly.

“Besides me, how many permanent human employees are there in the company?”

The moment I finished asking, the enormous ancient book that formed Omniscient Incompetent’s head began flipping its pages noisily through the air.

As though the tip of an invisible pen were scratching across the paper, black ink began rapidly seeping across the yellowed parchment, forming a perfectly legible sentence.

[Excluding the contracted employees of the Adjustment Department, there are eight in total.]

‘Eight.’

I quickly did the math in my head.

The people who retained a human appearance and, at the very least, some degree of dignity within this insane company.

The first people who came to mind were Director Moon Ara and Director Go Gyeol from the Order Control Room.

Then there was Supervisor Hong Na-gyeom from Extraction Team 2, who had made me work while wearing that cold expression.

And finally, me, Jeong Haeil.

Even counting all of us, there were only four.

‘Then who are the other four?’

With such an excellent source of information right in front of me, there was no need to dig through the personnel organization chart in that sinister computer system.

“Who are the three besides Director Go Gyeol, Director Moon Ara, Supervisor Hong Na-gyeom, and employee Jeong Haeil?”

At my question, Omniscient Incompetent’s old robe trembled slightly.

The pages flipped again with a rapid rustle, and this time the ink began seeping out much more slowly than before.

[The three belong to the Strategic Planning Office. Director Cheong Haram, Head of the Business Planning Team; Deputy Director Baek Jaeryeong, Head of the Future Business Team; and Assistant Manager Gil Sarang.]

Seven so far.

Of those, two belonged to the Abnormal Disaster Management Department, two to the Extraction Department, and three to the Strategic Planning Office.

“Who’s the last one?”

[That is…….]

Just as the sentence was about to be completed, the ink spreading across the paper abruptly stopped.

As though demanding that, if I wanted information of greater value, I had to offer some equally valuable gossip in return, a blank, underlined space seemed to stare directly at me.

Soon afterward, the ink began to swirl slowly along an unnatural path, forming new words.

[There is certain information I wish to obtain from you, Jeong Haeil. Would you be willing to provide it to me?]

The same pattern as last time.

It was a little unpleasant, but in truth, this actually made things simpler.

When I nodded, new words began to appear on Omniscient Incompetent’s pages.

[Manager Batori and Director Moon Ara. Which of the two do you prefer?]

“……?”

For a moment, I doubted my own eyes.

Why the hell was he suddenly bringing up those two?

However, unlike my dumbfounded expression, Omniscient Incompetent lightly fluttered his pages as he waited for my answer.

Seeing him act as though he were eagerly waiting to hear something exciting made me want to exercise a right to remain silent that didn’t even exist.

“……Do you mean as people?”

[It could be! Or I could be referring to another kind of preference!]

Omniscient Incompetent’s attitude, behaving like a panelist on a dating show, made irritation surge through me, but I managed to suppress my emotions and sank into thought.

The fear that every answer I gave this damned book-head might someday come flying back at me like a boomerang was enough to smother my anger.

‘Come to think of it, it’s hard to decide which of the two ranks higher.’

Manager Batori had stuck her tentacles into my brain and stirred it around however she pleased, yes, but she was also the person who had taught me the most practical information since I was thrown into this strange company.

And above all, as a fellow member of Extraction Team 1, didn’t she show me an almost blindly favorable attitude?

‘Though it does feel a little like she treats me as a pet.’

On the other hand, what about Director Moon Ara?

For starters, she had also saved me in the Residual Layer and was one of the few superiors I could communicate with as a fellow human being.

However, she always gave the strange impression of keeping a certain distance, and she was also the kind of person whose thoughts were impossible to guess.

For now, let’s set aside the question of whether it even made sense to compare a nonhuman being and a human woman on equal terms.

I moved my lips slightly, preparing to give some excuse-laden answer, when the ink began spreading across Omniscient Incompetent’s parchment like ripples.

[Ah, I understand now! The human heart is extraordinarily delicate and complex, so much so that sometimes even the person themselves does not understand what they feel. That reaction alone has already been an answer.]

“……What?”

I frowned as if asking what the hell he was talking about, but Omniscient Incompetent didn’t seem to care and noisily fluttered his pages, as though he had reached a satisfying conclusion all on his own.

I had no idea how he had interpreted my silence, but I had to be satisfied with the fact that he was at least going to provide me with the information without pathetically forcing me to answer.

The ink swirled again and began revealing the information about the eighth human, whose answer had been interrupted earlier.

[I will provide the information I promised. The last of the eight full-time human employees of Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts Co., Ltd. is…….]

My eyes trembled slightly as I watched the sentence complete itself.

[Assistant Manager Yoo Seulbi of Extraction Team 3. She is currently assigned to the Fairy-Tale Land Project!]

After hearing the final answer, I remained lost in thought for a moment.

There were four names I was hearing for the first time.

Director Cheong Haram, Deputy Director Baek Jaeryeong, and Assistant Manager Gil Sarang of the Strategic Planning Office.

And Assistant Manager Yoo Seulbi of Extraction Team 3.

The first thing that surprised me was that there was another human with the rank of Director.

Considering that most anomalous employees, including Assistant Manager Son, looked down on humans, there were a considerable number of humans holding ranks higher than many anomalous employees.

‘Even that hand-head is only an Assistant Manager.’

I was the only Employee, while everyone else was at least a Chief. Most were Assistant Managers or Directors.

I had obtained far more information than I had expected.

Now I knew that there were three humans in the Strategic Planning Office, which I needed to be especially wary of, and that there was another human within the same Extraction Department.

‘They said Extraction Team 3 handles missions in Distortion Zones.’

And even though several months had already passed since I joined the company, I still hadn’t seen Extraction Team 3 even once.

‘What the hell is that Fairy-Tale Land Project?’

They had also said that, in the case of Extraction Team 2, aside from Chief Hong Na-gyeom, who had returned early, and Chief Rang, whom I still hadn’t met, the rest had only just returned and were enjoying their paid vacation.

The question Director Moon Ara had asked Omniscient Incompetent had also been related to the Fairy-Tale Land Project.

For now, I knew only one thing the Fairy-Tale Land Project was an initiative led by the Strategic Planning Office.

I needed to know more about Fairy-Tale Land.

“May I ask you one more question?”

[Of course! Love, love! What a fascinating subject! Ever since classical literature, love has always…….]

Let’s gracefully ignore that book-head’s nonsense.

“What exactly is the Fairy-Tale Land Project?”

The moment I asked the question, the enormous ancient book that constituted Omniscient Incompetent’s head began flipping its pages at a terrifying speed, producing a sound almost like a shriek.

Every sheet trembled as though caught in a storm, and soon ink far darker and more viscous than usual began seeping across the yellowed parchment.

[There is certain information I wish to obtain from the future Jeong Haeil. When the time comes, would you be willing to provide me with information once?]

This was a new pattern.

Now he wanted to know something not from my present self, but from my future self.

But tomorrow’s me would surely know more than yesterday’s me, so there shouldn’t be a problem.

“Yes, I agree.”

As though he had been waiting for that answer, the parchment rippled gently and the ink began taking shape.

He seemed slightly pleased.

[The Fairy-Tale Land Project is a long-cherished aspiration of Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts Co., Ltd., as well as a stage of utmost importance.]

Marks from a pen tip so sharp they looked capable of tearing through the paper continued to form.

[Do you know Fantasia Island?]

When I shook my head, Omniscient Incompetent immediately made new words appear, as though he had already expected that answer.

The ink rapidly spread across the old parchment, composing sentences as though drawing a map.

[Fantasia Island is an enormous amusement park recently opened in Busan by the company that founded ‘Fantastic Island,’ one of the largest theme parks in the country, following the latter’s success.]

Fantastic Island?

For one of the largest theme parks in the country, I had never even heard of it.

While I seriously considered the possibility that Omniscient Incompetent had malfunctioned, his ancient book continued noisily fluttering its pages as it wrote new information.

[Fantasia Island was created under the concept of perfectly recreating various fairy-tale worlds from across the globe. More than simply a place to ride attractions, it became a major topic of conversation for offering visitors an experience so immersive that they seemed to have truly become the protagonists of a fairy tale.]

And for a place that had supposedly caused such a stir, I had never heard of it even once.

As though he had noticed the unconvinced expression with which I was looking at him, Omniscient Incompetent displayed the next words with considerably less enthusiasm than before.

[However, it has currently become a Distortion Zone occupied by Dimensional Entities, and after determining that it was more dangerous than any other Distortion Zone, the Abnormal Disaster Management Department ordered its closure. At the same time, a worldwide memory-erasure operation was carried out.]

Upon reading the last sentence he had written, I couldn’t help but freeze.

A worldwide memory erasure?

What had I just heard?

Even if it was a government agency, did the Abnormal Disaster Management Department, an organization made up of humans, possess technology capable of digging through the minds of all humanity and erasing specific information?

‘Could Min Dohyeon also……?’

While I remained lost in thought, too bewildered to respond, Omniscient Incompetent discreetly made a new sentence appear, as though trying to change the mood.

[By the way, aren’t you curious to know where C-31, the Unstable Escaped Prisoner, is?]

The moment I saw that sentence, I snapped back to my senses.

I had forgotten that, before erased histories and worldwide conspiracies, I had a much more urgent problem on my hands.

“Where is he?”

Omniscient Incompetent abruptly flipped his pages in response and, before the ink could even dry, formed a new sentence.

[He is above you, Jeong Haeil.]

Plop.

Something fell from the ceiling.

It was far too red and viscous to be ink.

Blood.

Clank.

The sound of a chain came from above my head.